I was determined to be bad, but I went straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Chapter 234 Salary Cut Tradition (Part [-])
On July 7, the door to free market signings officially opened.

With LeBron James staying in Cleveland, the biggest wild card has settled.

Pat Riley's dream of building the Big Three was shattered. His two-year plan was carefully prepared because of a tweet and a conversation.

Of course, the Miami-Heat did not get nothing, they got Chris Bosh, and Wade formed a very powerful combination of inside and outside.

Now that they are short of a small forward, Riley naturally has his plan B.

On July 7, the day after James made his decision, the Heat and the Grizzlies completed the deal.

The Heat sent Michael Beasley to the Grizzlies for Rudy Gay.

Two talented young threes were swapped.

Gay's rookie contract for this season has just expired, and the Grizzlies have signed a contract for 5 million yuan over five years.

Get Beasley, 2011 2nd pick, 2013 first round pick and 1000 million trade exception from the Heat.

This transaction caused a lot of controversy, especially the local media in Memphis, who believed that exchanging Rudy Gay for the unstable Michael Beasley was a very risky business.

And doing so obviously contributed to the Heat's formation of a very strong championship-level lineup.

With Wade - Bosh - Gay, the Heat has become a strong contender for the Eastern Conference championship and even the championship.

ESPN and some team management have criticized the Grizzlies for assisting other teams.

They did the same thing once in 2008.

"In 2008, they already sent a Pau Gasol, and in 2010 they gave a Rudy Gay. Are the Grizzlies the reserve military academy of the league championship team?"

"A team like the Grizzlies who traded indiscriminately should be kicked out of the league. What they did was a disruption to the market."

"Chris Wallace should be sacked, his bad trades keep making opponents better."

In the face of these controversies and doubts, Wallace said in a simple interview that he considered issues from a longer-term perspective and looked at the development of the team's lineup.

He believes that "Michael Beasley is a more talented player. Now our team is full of talents. This is the most important thing for the Grizzlies. I look further."

Reporters soon pointed out that Wallace's deal may have been inspired by the Clippers manager Smart.

Because the Clippers just sent away Eric Gordon, who played well, and replaced James Harden with a higher pick from the Thunder.

According to internal employees of the Clippers, Smart often emphasizes in the team that it is necessary to take a long-term perspective.

And Chris Wallace had close contact with Smart in the summer league last year.

In the middle of the season, the two teams even completed the transactions of Kaman and Gasol Jr.

It's clearly possible that Chris Wallace could be mentored by Smart, or learn from him.

That same day, the day after James made his decision to stay with the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers offered James a six-year, $6 million supermax contract.

Among them, the last two years are player options, and the signing of this contract makes Cleveland fans completely at ease.

Even if James wants to leave, he will have to wait until the summer of 2014, when he will be 29 years old.

The Cavaliers got another four years to continue chasing the championship.

Immediately after starting on July 7, the Cavaliers made transactions one after another.

They first used JJ-Hickson as the main body, and got Robin Lopez from the Suns with the draft pick.

Then, Mo Williams was sent away on July 7, and a 11 first-round pick, Carl Landry and Omer Casspi were obtained from the Kings.

With the Kings sitting on more than 3000 million contract space, the summer free market got nothing, and small balls will not be attractive to superstars.

In order to give the fans an explanation, the Kings management can only get a third-rate All-Star like Xiao Mo to support the team's backcourt.

These two transactions did not cause much repercussions in the media, because neither Robin Lopez, Carl Landry, nor Kasby were any powerful or star players.

And the Cavaliers also lost Mo Williams, the only effective ball-handling point for the Cavaliers besides James.

Not only Williams, the Cavaliers subsequently cut Gibson and West one after another, sweeping away the small guards in the team.

Instead, they announced on July 7 that they had renewed the team's second-round pick Danny Green and signed outside shooter Mike Miller with a middle class.

Miller came to the Cavaliers specifically for James, and the Cavaliers are gradually reorganizing their lineup.

According to Leon Rose, the agent who just terminated the contract with James, the reason why James stayed in the Cavaliers has a lot to do with the Clippers.

"After LeBron's conversation in Los Angeles, he decided to stay in Cleveland, and I am sure that James now has a greater say in the Cavaliers, and many operations of the management must be done with his own consent. As for who he listens to Yes, I’m not sure, in short, I think he is a player who lacks his own opinions and ideas, and is always led by such and such voices.”

Because of being fired by James, Leon Rose was very angry, and he quickly broke the news in the media.

But it didn't cause too much disturbance. The fans' attention was still on the players. An agent could say whatever he liked.

James' new team agent Rich Paul said: "LeBron is a person who has a clear plan for himself, and Cleveland will always be his first choice. He went to other cities, but to learn more about the league. , Hearing some useful experience. In Los Angeles, he got some designations, made his choice, that's all. Now his goal is to be himself and try to win a championship trophy for Cleveland."

Such a voice immediately won a lot of praise in Cleveland. James is already a well-deserved hero in this city, and he is only short of a championship trophy.

In fact, he was not the only one staying behind.

In the summer, Pierce also stayed with the Boston Celtics.

Of course, the Big Three have just entered the finals, and they will continue to fight for the championship next season.

In the West, Dirk Nowitzki announced his withdrawal from his contract on the first day of free agency.

The Mavericks' management immediately flew to Germany to negotiate the next contract agreement with Nowitzki.

They did not want to give up the 10-year-old Nowitzki because of the disastrous failure of Black Seven in the 32-year playoffs.

Of the other teams, the Houston Rockets seemed to be the only ones who politely called Dirk and asked if he would like to come to Houston.

After all, they are all in Texas, so it is convenient to move.

Nowitzki naturally refused politely, even if the Rockets were willing to offer a maximum salary.

The Mavericks said that for the sake of the championship, they hope that Dirk can cut his salary from 4 million in 9600 years to 4 million in 8600 years.

Reduced by 1000 million so that the team has more salary space to sign other free agents.

Nowitzki agreed very happily, not only signed the contract, but also cut his salary even more, a straight drop of 1600 million.

Renew his contract with the Mavericks with a salary of 4 million in four years, and continue to fight for the championship in Dallas.

The stinginess of several teams in Texas may be regarded as a tradition for core players to cut their salaries.

In the case of major free agents who have their own names and flowers, another Texas team is worrying about signing.

That was Popovich. He never expected that someone would compete with him for Matt Bonner.

(End of this chapter)